The first time I made this dish was an evening last fall when I walked into the butcher’s and said, “I just need something easy for dinner tonight.”

Before moving to Scotland, my butcher shop was the gargantuan counter at Whole Foods Market. Being only 5’2″, I was always eye level with the top of the counter, so speaking to the butcher was like talking to a gleaming piece of metal.

In contrast, the butcher shop here is the same size as my kitchen, and speaking to the butcher is like talking to an old friend.

That day last fall he responded with, “Why not pork fillets?”, rhyming with millet and said with a straight face.

I came to pork late, growing up in a Jewish household where the only pork we ate was bacon and ham sandwiches, and these we only ate outside the house.

Pork fillet for dinner? “What would I do with it?”, emphasis on do, sounding like dew and Moooo!

“Just sear it,” he said, “and it’ll be ready in minutes.”

I brought the pork fillets home and cracked open my trusty Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters. Alice knows how to cook everything and she never leads me astray, even in Scotland.

I flipped through a few pages and decided to pan-sear the pork and finish it with a quick sauce of water, Dijon mustard and butter. First, I’d chop some fresh tarragon and press it into the seasoned fillets.

Tarragon is a beguiling herb, slightly floral and reminiscent of licorice. It does wonders for plain scrambled eggs and I thought it would brighten up the pork. Also, I didn’t have any sage, which is a classic pairing with pork, so I’d have to make the tarragon work.

The resulting dish was delicious and I made it many times before searching for a variation.

By this time it was mid-January and I had an embarrassing number of onions and apples in my veggie box every week. I came across a recipe from Dinner: A Love Story, that promised to use them up. It called for frying up some sliced onion and apple, adding pork chops, then finishing with a quick sauce of mustard, apple cider vinegar and water.

I tried the recipe a few times – and loved the tangy bite of the vinegar with the sweetness of the caramelized onions – but I had trouble getting it just right. For one thing, it calls for finishing the pork with the sauce in a covered saute pan, but mine isn’t big enough for three or four pork chops. When I cooked them in an uncovered pan, the pork dried out and became tough.

Finally I decided to separate the meat from the sauce and just combine them on the plate. In essence, I use the Alice Waters recipe to cook the pork with the tarragon, and the Dinner: A Love Story recipe to prepare a sauce. The result is always successful: moist, sweet, and tangy with a delicious aftertaste of mustard, vinegar and onions.

This recipe will work equally well with boneless pork chops, pork loin steaks or the fillets described above.

1. Season the pork fillets on both sides with salt and pepper. Mince the tarragon and press it into one side of each fillet. You can do this up to an hour before cooking the pork, and leave it to rest at cool room temperature.
2. Slice the onion thinly. Heat a small frying pan over medium-low heat, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil, the sliced onion and a pinch of salt. Allow the onion to cook, mostly undisturbed for 5 – 6 minutes. The onion should be just starting to go golden when you start the pork.
3. Heat a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil to the pan, then add the pork, herb-coated-side down. Cook for about 4 minutes, until starting to brown nicely. Flip the pork and continue cooking for another 4 – 6 minutes, until the internal temperature is 145°F.
4. Once you flip the pork, pour the water into the pan with the onions. Scrape up any browned bits on the surface of the pan, then add the the mustard and vinegar. Season to taste with salt and pepper. The water should reduce slightly to create a nice sauce.
5. Place a pork fillet on each plate, ladling the saucy onions over the top. Slice and enjoy.

Up here in Scotland we’re in the middle of what one friend calls “the tunnel”. Back in November I bumped into him on the street in St. Andrews. He said, “We’ve entered the tunnel. We won’t come out until February.”

Northern living is challenging at this time of year. The mornings are dark – pitch dark, bump-into-walls-while-making-coffee dark.

The afternoons are even darker. Light seeps into the sky around 8:45 and starts to drain out again by 3:30.

I’ve never been so acutely aware of the winter solstice. We actually count the days we achieved since December 21st.

The good news is we still get out for walks on the sunny days – and Scotland is just as beautiful in winter as it is in summer.

The bad news is the darkness makes me crave carbs. I remember one afternoon saying to Rob, “All I want to do is lie around and eat cookies.”

Hot meals are essential at this time of year. Breakfasts are often frittatas filled with leftover vegs from the night before. Dinners are soups, stews, braises, ribs, and roasts of all kinds. Here are my family’s top 5 winter meals – all of which make excellent leftover lunches the following day.

Moroccan Beef Stew

Studded with slivers of dried apricots and chunks of succulent beef, this stew is a cinch to make and warms you up fast.

Asian-Spiced Braised Beef Short Ribs

These ribs, inspired by the awesome Jean Georges Vongerichten, never fail to delight. They’re easy to make, taste better the second day, and please a crowd. Shown here with braised swiss chard.

Adobo Chicken

Since moving to Scotland, I’ve had to tweak this chicken dish. For one thing, my butcher doesn’t stock drumsticks. In fact, chicken is the hardest protein to come by here. When he does have it, it’s either a whole bird (most economical) or boneless breasts (exorbitant and not as flavorful). I like making homemade chicken stock, especially in winter, so I opt for the whole bird.

I butcher the chicken into eight pieces before browning it in olive oil and butter, about 5 minutes of cooking. I finish the cooking in a hot oven (450°F), about 10 – 15 minutes more. Once cooked, I remove the chicken to a platter and add sherry vinegar and water to the hot pan. Once the liquid is reduced by half, I add a tablespoon of butter, salt and pepper. The sauce emulsifies (though still liquid as opposed to syrup), and I add the chicken back for a quick coating.

You can really use any vinegar you like here. The benefit is that you can change up the flavor slightly, and it also comes together more quickly than the original Adobo Chicken, which requires marinating time. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed by this innovation.

Fennel-Dusted Pork Spare Ribs

These ribs from Andrea Reusing’s Cooking in the Moment were our Christmas Eve dinner this year. Our butcher started circulating flyers at the beginning of December, which you were meant to take away, fill out, and return by the 12th. The front page described all the festive fayre you could order from them: hampers, stuffing, meat pies, and of course, your holiday turkey or goose or roast or ham.

I took my flyer, but neglected to get it in by the 12th. (I’m used to Whole Foods Market, which is likely open til 11:00 on Christmas Eve, stocked with every imaginable cut of meat in abundance. Of course, their freezer space is larger than the entire butcher shop and post office next door combined.) When I did go in with the flyer, I hadn’t checked anything off. The problem is that I’m still getting used to British cuts of meat – they’re different, they really are, even though the cow is the same!

So I went in and asked if he could get me some baby back ribs. I thought, why not do something simple for Christmas Eve? Ribs are tasty, and they’re fun. You get to eat with your fingers, and who doesn’t like that?

Spiced Butternut Squash Soup with Pancetta and Fried Onions

This soup is a winner. The sweetness of butternut squash, the saltiness of pancetta, the crunch of fried onions, and the velvety texture of homemade chicken stock. It doesn’t get much better than this on a winter night.

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